People might be forced to stop paying for these services, at least at their current prices. The recession might force the needed step back from consumerism. If the average person has 4 streaming services, and tightens their bet to “just” 1, that’s a 3/4ths reduction in subscribers across the industry.

As I age I find myself feeling more and more like the cool step-dad or uncle.

Y’know I hate everything Chromebooks stand for. “You get 'em, kid. Now how about we get some pizza?”

Oh god the “side hustle” hobby culture gets me fuming mad.

The silver lining in my head is that at least the USA can dissuade other countries from voting conservative. And if Canada/Australia take in US refugees, the progressive parties would get a huge boost in support.

Absolutely Horrible. I was already struggling due to ADHD, but since November I’ve felt completely awful. Some days I feel “I’m in the end of times” and force myself to indulge in games and food, but it never makes me feel better. Other days I run myself into the ground trying to plan some way to fight back. My next “to-do” is getting a pistol, but that’s hard in my state.

The only upside is I have felt less socially anxious about reaching out to new people. Having a real existential crisis does cause those fears of “what if they think I’m annoying” to subside.

YouTube has a pretty strong hold because video hosting and streaming is extremely expensive. That’s why most platforms have strict file limits for them. In the pre-Google days of YouTube, most accounts could only upload <15 minute videos, and that limitation is still in place if you have an unverified account.

I don’t see how we’ll get any alternative to YouTube unless it comes from another large corporation, though I’d love to be proven wrong in that.

Using the tools is fine IMO because the moment those tools stop working, people will move their time to Twitch/Instagram/Bluesky/TikTok/etc. 60-120 second ads will push away all, except for iPad toddlers.

Makes me wonder if Google knows this, and is deliberately adding these ridiculous ads, but not patching those tools, so they can keep their user metrics up while pushing the uninformed/indifferent into YouTube Premium subscriptions…

okay Switch to Linux if you can and are willing to undergo constant troubleshooting. I chose not to, and this is how I managed that.

I’ve been using my device for well over 5 years and have had zero issues. And there isn’t much of an alternative if you need Windows compatibility.

my two cents - install an older version of Windows 10. I use 20H2. You can find clean ISO files on the Internet Archive. Disable automatic updates, and use services like Blackbird (getblackbird.net) to de-bloat your instance.